State History

On Saturday, October 20th, Ulster County Executive Mike Hein joined with Ulster County Clerk Nina Postupack and County Historian Geoff Miller, along with New York State Historian Devin Lander, to honor Edwin (Ed) Ford's 34 years of dedicated service as City of Kingston Historian.  A formal ceremony took place at the Matthewis Person House located at 74 John Street, Kingston, NY as part of the Ulster County Cultural Heritage Week festivities.

Last April 2018, Ed Ford celebrated his 100th birthday at a party attended by most of the greater Kingston region’s political, preservationist and historical communities.  They came not only to celebrate Ed’s longevity, but his years as a champion and activist for historic preservation which began in the 1960s in response to urban renewal.

Ed was born in Highland, NY in 1918.  His family moved to Kingston, NY in 1928 where he attended elementary school just down the block from the “oldest four corners in America,” an intersection with prerevolutionary stone houses on each corner in the heart of Kingston’s historic Stockade District.  Graduating from Kingston High School in 1936, Ed attended New Paltz Normal School (now SUNY New Paltz) with ambitions of becoming a teacher, but ended up in New York City after his graduation in 1939 to work first for a bank, then for a naval architectural firm.  During World War II he served as a staff sergeant in the United States Air Force, Weather Division headquarters.

In New York City, Ed met and married his wife Ruth, originally from High Falls, NY, in 1942.  Together with their young son Alan, Ed and Ruth returned to Kingston in 1949.  Ed started Ford Printing with his brother Bill, which Ed and Ruth continued operating until 1989. 

The demolition of the iconic Old Post Office in Kingston during the late 1960s sparked the beginning of an active preservation movement in which Ed was an ardent participant and leader.  He was a founding member of the Friends of Historic Kingston, and served fifteen terms as its president and many more years on its board.  Working through Friends of Historic Kingston, Ed was instrumental in the purchase, restoration and resale of several historic homes thereby sparing them from demolition during the City’s urban renewal initiative.  He also successfully interceded on behalf of several other historic structures, convincing the City to use urban renewal funds to shore them up rather than tear them down.  Ed and his wife, Ruth, were two of the original founders of the Klyne-Esopus Historical Society Museum and were prime movers in saving and restoring the Klyne-Esopus Dutch Reformed Church (built 1827) for the museum’s home. Ed was also instrumental in saving the old City Hall from destruction when it was abandoned as part of the urban renewal project to relocate city offices to a new city hall built in the area most devastated by the demolition.  After a struggle that lasted two decades, the Old City Hall was fully restored and, in 2000, once again became the seat of city government.

In 1984, Mayor Peter Mancuso appointed Ed as City Historian, a post he holds to this day.  In this role he has given frequent lectures to tour groups and local organizations, taught a course on local history as an adjunct faculty member at Ulster County Community College, and published two books about Kingston: Kingston, Arcadia Press Images of America Series (2004); and Street Whys: Anecdotes and Lore About the Streets of Kingston, New York (Round Top, NY: Ford Publishing, 2010). 

Ed’s devotion to history and community, coupled with a strong sense civic duty, have led him to serve on the boards of the Salvation Army, the City of Kingston Community Development Commission, the Kingston Historic Landmarks Preservation Commission, the Kingston Waterfront Commission, the Ulster County Historical Society, the Fireman’s Museum and as chair, the Old Dutch Church Heritage Museum.  He served as a deacon and elder at Old Dutch for many years as well.  He continues to serve on the Kingston Heritage Area Commission, the Kingston Academy Board of Trustees and as a special advisor to the board of Friends of Historic Kingston.

Ed’s talks for the Kingston’s Buried Treasures lecture series are available on Youtube: on Ezra Hasbrouck Fitch, of Abercrombie and Fitch, grandson of Kingston Bluestone merchant Ezra Fitch, HERE; and on Samuel Coykendall, the late 19th and early 20th century Kingston industrialist, HERE.